Tuesday, January 26, 2010

China gags over Google

Google's threat to pull out of China, has turned into a donnybrook. It tore off slim plaster papering over Sino US relations. Once again Beijing's heavy hand has sent things into a spin.Google turns a goodly profit by doing business in China. Chinese users like it, because it is a superior search engine, despite central government restrictions and interference.Google has complied with China's domestic spying on its own citizens by yielding to the Communist authorities a list of its users. Why upset a good deal, then reasoned Google which stands for freedom of expression? Google's knuckling under to China's censorship worked up a tempest in a teapot without much damage to its reputation. The fallout was minimal.But things took a nastier turn when Beijing began hacking into Googles' mainframe in California. Google drew a line in the sand. China was China, but when the Communist authorities began poking noses into its own computers, well, that wouldn't be tolerated. And, so, the threat to withdrew from China unless Beijing ceased and desisted in spying on Google.China being China, swaggering with the arrogance of a waxing capitalist power, denied spying and putting censor blinders on Google. It was simply applying its own law.Google did something that even US president Barack Obama [BHO]failed to due. It stuck its face into Beijing's, challenging its right to censor and to spy. Conforming to China's law in China was one thing, t'was another when China committed illegal and unlawful acts in spying on Google and its users on Google's home turf!Google's stiffened spine gave heart to China's internet users who rightfully saw what was building up to a challenge to China's government's paper tiger threat to Google. To make matters worse for Beijing, the US government got into the act, since it provided the issue to bash China for censorship, illegal tapping into US databases, so on and on.China is a dirty fighter. It went into an attack mode, on one hand, but on the other, sought to keep Google from leaving China. For Google's abandonment of the mythical China market would be a stain on China's reputation, which for the Communist authorities, is as innocent and as pure as Caesar's wife!And her the matter rests for the present. China has lost face, but won't admit it. To Google leaving China will put a dent into its bottom line but won't bankrupt it. Wittingly, it has become a poster boy for freedom of thought when it touches on its mother company in California; otherwise, for the almighty $, it has and did cave into China's harsh censorship laws.